Currently, in the information processing field, a virtualization technique for executing multiple virtual computers (hereinafter referred to as virtual machines or logical hosts in some cases) on a physical computer (hereinafter referred to as a physical machine or a physical host in some cases) is used. On each of the virtual machines, software such as an operating system (OS) may be executed. The physical machine that uses the virtualization technique executes software for managing the multiple virtual machines.
For example, software that is referred to as a hypervisor may assign, as arithmetic resources, the processing capacity of a central processing unit (CPU) and storage regions of a random access memory (RAM) to the multiple virtual machines. In addition, the hypervisor may execute, on the physical machine, a function (hereinafter referred to as a virtual switch in some cases) of relaying communication of the virtual machines.
A load to be applied due to a process executed by software may be reduced by causing hardware to execute a part of the software process (this operation is referred to as offloading in some cases). For example, there is a proposal in which a requirement for switching to a software process is set to ensure that a process is switched to the software process that is executed on a part to be inspected in detail by software. In this proposal, a desired part in a single application session is processed by the software and the other part is processed by hardware. In addition, processes (for example, Quality of Service (QoS), filtering, and the like) of a virtual switch may be offloaded to an external physical switch.
Examples of related art are Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-272628 and “Katsuyuki OHKAWARA, “Fujitsu Develops Technology for Offloading Virtual Switch Functions on Server to 10 GbE Switch”, online, Jun. 10, 2010, Impress Watch Corporation, “searched on Apr. 18, 2013”, on the Internet.